High school graduations are such hurried, formulaic affairs. They move much too quickly for parents and far too slowly for graduates who would just as soon get on with the party many of them imagine adulthood will be. “Above all, never procrastinate!” Student Council President Kelsey Cupp urged her fellow graduates. She and Senior Class President Levi Kelly shared the duty of delivering the commencement address to a packed Tiger Fieldhouse. Cupp and Kelly alternated without missing a beat as they bantered back and forth before concisely expressing appreciation for the sacrifices that had been made for them, their parents’ sacrifices primarily, but also those of school personnel and peers.

“We hope we’ve made you proud,” implored Kelly. “We are here today, looking presentable.” And, aside from some very minor impropriety—the kind you hope for during a commencement exercise to break the monotony—they did look very presentable.

But the character of this class goes a lot deeper, and Cupp paid homage to Socrates’ admonition that “the unexamined life is not worth living” when she paraphrased Ralph Waldo Emerson: “What lies behind us, and what lies before us, are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

The senior class that had begun its final year of high school with the tragic loss of one of its own ended that year yesterday as the graduates paused for Madison McCormick to honor the memory of Zach Cupp. After some moments of silence, the rite of passage resumed, regrettably with one less senior on board.